View full sizePelham resident Jack Donovan expresses concerns about the city's plan to form a municipal school district that would take children out of Chelsea's schools that are near their homes during a public hearing on June 17, 2013. Efforts to de-annex from the city are growing as a result. (Martin J. Reed / mreed@al.com)

PELHAM, Alabama -- To use the pun adopted by Pelham
residents with strong allegiance to neighboring Chelsea's schools and their mascot,
the City of Pelham has stirred a hornets' nest.

Following a public
hearing last week attended by more than 200 concerned Pelham residents with
many worried about the city forming a school district that would require them
to pull their children from Chelsea's institutions, talk about de-annexation is
running rampant.

"We will seek de-annexation in the very near future," Bent
Creek Homeowners Association president Jason Rhoads said in an e-mail following
the meeting.

Pelham City Council members Karyl Rice and Ron Scott at
the three-hour-plus hearing on June 17 mentioned de-annexation for the
residents near Chelsea as a way to overcome concerns about their inability to
stay in the Shelby County School District.

Negotiations would need to happen between Pelham and Shelby County
concerning district separation and resulting school attendance, Rice said. "But from what I know
right now, I would be signing a petition to get me out of the city," she told
the meeting's attendees.

Scott later added: "Like Karyl, get your petitions
together and I will sign them and help you."

Efforts are building by Pelham residents in the various
subdivisions off Highways 11 and 36 near Chelsea to ask the City Council for
de-annexation. They include Bent Creek, Windstone, Courtyard Manor, Oaklyn
Hills, Deer Ridge, Grey Oaks, Wild Timber and more.

An e-mail sent last Tuesday to more than two dozen
residents in the Windstone Subdivision is calling for the organization of a
petition drive to de-annex from Pelham. A signup day is planned for this
Saturday, June 29, in the neighborhood with plans to present the petition to
the City Council in July.

An online petition drive to de-annex from Pelham has been
started at Change.org (http://chn.ge/13CGbAi)
with 238 supporters as of today.

Many residents cite concerns with Pelham schools located
more than 30 minutes away compared to Chelsea's institutions just a few miles
from their homes. Decreasing property values for the affected residents are
another worry if their homes are zoned for Pelham's schools and not Chelsea's.

Chelsea leaders are embracing the residents who want to
flee from Pelham's city limits. Chelsea City Councilman Tony Picklesimer used a
Facebook forum for issues about the community to address residents in Pelham.

"Start a petition in your neighborhood and surrounding
neighborhoods for de-annexation from Pelham. 100% request from a subdivision will
be hard for them not to hear," Picklesimer recommended.

"Being a part of Chelsea would not only qualify you for
all of our city services but would also lower your taxes on your home. Chelsea
does not charge a property tax to its residents. We provide our services
strictly from sales taxes that you are already paying now when you shop and do
business in Chelsea," he stated.

Picklesimer emphasized to residents that unfinished roads
in subdivisions are not an obstacle for annexation into Chelsea. "Your roads
will not affect our decision to annex you and your community if the opportunity
presents itself. It will not. I promise," he wrote.

Chelsea leaders at the City Council's meeting the evening
after the Pelham gathering gave themselves a pat on the back for the community
support heard at the public hearing.

"I'm just proud of the way people spoke up and the
impression they gave for the Chelsea community and a lot of that came back to
the city," Mayor Earl Niven said.

The concerned Pelham residents with children in Chelsea's
schools need to be heard, City Councilwoman Alison Moore Nichols said. "We are
not a pile of numbers. We are a community," she said, referring to the roughly
221 students from Pelham attending Chelsea's schools mentioned in a feasibility report on the issue.

"How many of those 221 have brothers and sisters? I would
say at least 50 percent," City Councilman Dale Neuendorf said, noting the
number could grow.

The Pelham City Council is holding its next public hearing
on the municipal school district proposal at 7 p.m. on July 8 at the Pelham Civic
Complex and Ice Arena.